Attack of the Dawns
by Fearitself
Summary: Buffy is feeling poorly. Dawn saves the day!
1. Buffy is not Well

I own nothing as it relates to BtVS.  
  
This story occurs between episode 3 and 4 of the seventh season. ________________________________________________________  
  
An ailing Buffy Summers lay quietly in her bed. The horrific beating she had taken from several vampires was not something she would get over in a day or two. Willow hovered anxiously in the background, fiddling with some medicinals. Last night, Buffy and Xander had driven over to the Doublemeat Palace to pick up some food for the gang in order to celebrate Willow's return to Sunnydale from England, and when she exited the establishment, she was suddenly set upon by a group of vampires whom she perceived to be members of the Ta'wa'uth clan, newly moved into town. Their leader's name was unpronounceable, so the Scoobys just referred to him as Bob. The well- coordinated attack of these vampires might well have meant the end of Buffy, if she hadn't jumped through the passenger window of Xander's car, with him taking off out of there as fast as his vehicle would allow.  
  
Buffy lay there, pondering Bob and his clan. They were clearly on their way to becoming the most powerful evil force in the history of Sunnydale, and all that she could do for the next several days was to rest, and try and regain her strength. "Whatever will become of us", she moaned to herself. "And Dawn, poor dear sweet Dawnie, she's so fragile", she thought to herself. Meanwhile, Willow had finished concocting her potion. "I sure hope this stuff works", she thought, as she glanced worriedly in Buffy's direction. Swiftly she downed the mix, and instantly achieved the results she had hoped for. "Now I feel better about everything", Willow said to herself, brightly. "I wonder if we still have any pizza", she thought, as she headed to the kitchen.  
  
Meanwhile, in another part of town, Hoodoo, the brother of the Toth demon that Buffy had slain, after he had split Xander into two persons while attempting to kill Buffy, was busily plotting his revenge. "If I split Buffy's friends, and try to kill their weaker halves, Buffy will be so pre- occupied by trying to protect them that she will make a mistake, thereby becoming my easy prey", he thought to himself. He already had his first target planned out: Dawn. He had done some surveillance on those closest to Buffy and realized that she was the ideal target. Not only was she the sister of Buffy, but she had a fairly routine pattern of when she would leave home to go to school, and when she left school to go home, or sometimes elsewhere. He could time his attack perfectly. 


	2. Dawn is Attacked

Dawn is Attacked  
  
Early the following morning, Dawn was in the kitchen making breakfast for Buffy, Willow and herself, which meant she was making toast, the only food she had ever learned to prepare. She was proud of her toast making skills. After a while, Willow came down to fill a pitcher with water. Seeing Dawn and the pile of toast, Willow told Dawn that Buffy was still much too battered to take any solid food, and thankfully Buffy was still asleep.  
  
A short while later, Dawn was on her way to school, cutting across the small park on Hansen Road as was her wont. Hoodoo was waiting in the bushes. When Dawn came into range, he blasted her with his rod. Instantly, there were two Dawns where previously there had only been one. He rushed out at her with a sword, intending to kill the weakest Dawn, thereby ending Dawn's life. Of course this was just practice, a dry run to make sure everything was functioning as it should for when the real test came when he took on Buffy herself. As he approached Dawn, he was unable to tell which was the weak Dawn and which was the strong Dawn. He really should be able to instantly spot the difference, thought Hoodoo to himself. That was part of the way that the spell worked!  
  
Suddenly, the two Dawns leapt into action. They both pulled stakes out of their handbags and began to circle around him. Hoodoo became cautious; these were two ordinary girls, not slayers or warriors, he thought to himself. They shouldn't be too hard to kill, but it would be best to plan his attack. One Dawn was in front of him now, and one was behind him. He shifted around and looked to his left to see where a Dawn was, and then he looked to the right and saw two Dawns! Looking left again, he saw a new Dawn popping into existence! Again looking right, he saw four Dawns approaching him. This was beginning to get worrisome for Hoodoo, and he thought retreat might be his best option. But it was too late: he found himself surrounded by a hoard of determined Dawns, each wielding a stake.  
  
Thirty-two Dawns looked upon the hardly recognizable remains of Hoodoo, and contemplated the situation. When she had taken a hit from the rod of this demon, she had immediately spilt into two, but perhaps not so much split as multiplied into two Dawns, with her Dawn consciousness present in the both of them, so she could act through each of them in the same way that she could previously move both of her arms at the same time. Further, it unleashed some deep power in her that made her understand how the replication process occurred, and to be able to replicate herself. Later on, Willow would explain how it was that her being the Key, and the particular magics of the demon Hoodoo had caused all of this to come about. 


End file.
